With all the bigotry and cruel jokes by people who really don’t know how to deal with people outside their narrow spheres, it’s always nice to read stories like this one to remember that for every bully, every bigot, every person who engages in either behavior either alone or to impress their peers, there are many others who do the opposite. Some feel that anonymous haters are getting out of control.

Anyway, been busy finishing up another round of rewrites on one novel and starting another nonfiction book to keep me busy until a writing partner finishes his current book in between research assignments. While the outlining is a bit slow, I’ve already started searching through hundreds of photos to use.

I really like this photo taken in 1999. The woman in the center wearing the flowers on her dress is the daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., named Yolanda who passed away several years ago of a heart attack. She was dedicating a MLK, Jr. monument and pleased the mayor with a comment that it was the prettiest monument of her father ever created. She didn’t please the mayor when she mentioned her brother MLK III being arrested in civil disobedience several blocks away. She was a very nice woman, very interesting to meet and talk with about her father’s legacy.

Yolanda King

Like her mother Coretta before her, Yolanda was prepared for burial before her death in Tillman Mortuary in my city though in her mother’s case, not under the same requirements of strict confidentiality. After all the contributions she and her husband made towards civil rights in this country that wasn’t a difficult secret to keep.

Most Popular Outclick of 2013

This heads exploding icon was the most clicked link on this site the entire time, with more than a 100 clicks outs. Somebody liked it a lot.

Cartoon of the Year

This was submitted from someone calling themselves “BFF Of Course”. Not exactly true of course. I never met her, and my only interaction with her during my nearly four years in the SIM was when she tried to pick a fight with me hoping her crew would back her up. Sometimes they did, most often they ignored her but I thought it was kind of funny. But hey, these folks will lie, cheat, steal and bully over some pretty looking binary code so that’s pretty much all that needs to be said to put the award winning cartoon in its proper perspective. The cartoon originated from Kentucky/Indiana.

Quote of the Year

“I just want to make it CLEAR. Seriously Fuck her up-Brass Knuckles, bashing her head into the pavement or a hard floor etc.”

I thought this one was extra special because of the sheer silliness of it. This person had already made a comment about “F”n up a player over some range war that’s been going on between this player and some people “liked” it. I don’t know because I guess some people got off on trash talk like that. But this person apparently thought that she hadn’t made herself clear enough to her pack rats so she provided even more specific details of ho she wanted to harm another player if she ever saw her. This same player claimed not to be friends with a list of people when she posted her including those who were apparently rah rah rah about her comments in that same conversation while she was playing Switzerland in the comment section here.

I think about this comment when I realize just how lunatic type crazy people can get over pretty binary code as perhaps a cautionary statement that it’s best to remember that a game is a game. Real life is real life. It’s hard to even know what to say when seemingly intelligent people confuse the two. That’s why when people claim that my head is exploding over “losing” a fake horse race, I have to have some fun with that. No, losing a fake race is not really worth getting upset about anymore than winning a fake horse is worth really getting excited about. Now getting my first novel published, that is something worth getting excited about! Surviving home renovations is worth getting excited about! Exceeding my surgeon’s rather gloomy expectations for regaining use of one of my arms, that’s worth getting excited about!

I don’t remember much about my fake horses anymore or what races they even won or lost. I remember the very nice people including several I met at other sites (apologizing to two that I didn’t do as much as I could when they were getting bullied off the site including one hurt pretty badly by flame threads allowed to remain in the forum). Another player deeply hurt by comments in a player’s blog which was allowed to not only be linked but actively promoted on the site. It’s nice to sometimes run into people and just say that I’d wish I’d done more to make them feel welcome and that while the nasty people might have the run of the site (and the FB conversation is proof why), they’re not the only ones. I met some former game players on line in different places and it’s much nicer conversing with them elsewhere then sticking around in a cesspool with those who ran them off carte blanche.

Being a forum moderator and having moderated Chats has been very educational. Not always fun but it’s good to know that people really know that you’re fair and objective and don’t play favorites.

Runner up, was a cartoon that originated from a major corporation’s IPS in Los Angeles. It’s so nice that the equipment there is being put to great use and that the hired help are making the most of their time on the clock.

I like this photo a lot too. Shemar Moore from Criminal Minds and his mom. I met Shemar some years back while volunteering on some charity gigs. He’s really cool and nice if you ever get a chance to meet him.

Onto the weekend….

Lazy weekends are the best! After spending part of Friday night helping to clean out a porn spammer on the forum boards, I’m thinking that some folks out there need better hobbies. If not they need to find better porn. Next time porn spammers, send me a PM and if you’re going to flood the boards with porn, I can set you up with something classier.

It took two hours to clean it up and get the site back on track again, so that porn spammer won’t return for a repeat performance. Hopefully our next spammer posts something prettier like kitties and puppies! Not too many jerks and cyber bullies on the forums overall. They must have been hanging out elsewhere.

Ah yes, 2013 was filled with folks who prided themselves on bullying others usually in packs. Most likely because their own lives left them with little to take personal pride in so they took that deficiency out on other folks. Jettisoning the flotsam definitely made 2013 a happier year. Best decision I made was to say goodbye to pretty binary code and those who seem a little too invested in it and leaving all that craziness. nothing’s worth that hassle. Moderating has given me some perspective but you definitely have to grow a pair to handle it responsibly and keep your friendships off the site especially when your friends choose to behave as assholes.

Homophobia is still in fashion. But gay marriage is still alive, thriving and a boost to the local economy!

A new skill discovered this year was the Emmy reel. I had no idea that there were so many strict rules including time restrictions. But by the time I offered recommendations for my fourth reel, I could at least say this scene or those scene on this date (thanks YouTube!) so we’ll see who makes the cut as nominations are announced later this year. I think initial nominations are due in April and then Blue Ribbon Panel for the finalists in the supporting acting categories. So we’ll see if anyone makes it. It was fun…kind of..guess I’ll have to see what happens.

When is Ken not really Ken?

(answer: next blog posting…I’m still following this rumor to its conclusion)

Winter’s shaping up to be pretty warm and dry while the rest of the nation’s in deep freeze. That’s been kind of nice. It’s been a quirky year what with half the city under water in August and then a couple of heat waves and one little tiny freeze. Wish the earth would stop shaking!

The Broncos limped to a win over the Chargers and being a Broncos fan in the midst of Chargers fans was interesting. The Seattle Seahawks beat the Saints! Denver beat the Chargers!

Broncos beat the Patriots. Seahawks beat the Niners and now it’s off to the Super Bowl! First time for Denver since 1998.

This is the hidden valley in Northern California near a town called Ferndale. I remember driving with the vets I worked with as a teen. Once, helped change a tire on this road on the way to one of the local dairy forms to treat a cow down with Milk Fever. One phosphate shake and a zap and she was up and right again.

Not Simple Jack per se but Simple Susan as the childhood bullies called her…but her name’s Susan Boyle a well known singer recently diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. There’s two things to recognize from this. First, she is a successful singer who refused to let bullies define who she could become…and second she’ll probably never be welcome in Sim Chat or perhaps the game itself. One’s a triumph, the other’s not exactly a tragedy.

Thanks to some folks who checked in….Half the people in Sim Chat…when the bullies are posturing…and thinking everyone’s just in total shock and aw at their brilliance. Thanks for the “cheering section” ( 😉 ) member who sent this cartoon and for some hilarious commentary on the past month! A little levity’s not a bad thing but I’d hoped for better from the children even though I’m not in the play pen. I feel sorry but I’m glad I don’t have to deal with it anymore though I do feel for the bullied. Thanks for the cartoons though. Keep them coming.

It’s been quite busy. I’m chilling with some cafe Francis with English toffee sweetener mixed in while breaking up a couple minor squabbles on a forum between fan bases. The threads alas are not salvageable so poof…gone! Like magic, got to like forum moderation…not as instantaneous as Chat but the “real life” time of Chat makes it the environment more likely to go toxic very quickly. I did two hours earlier this month while live tweeting the local election results to keep my skills sharp. I imagine it’s a little like being the monitor of elementary school children at recess.

Ooops a thread derail on the forum! Naughty children! But no threats or jokes about killing or lynching people so this crowd looks a bit more grown up and less like insecure, immature little punks who bully and harass then defend it like they’re doing their victims a huge favor. Pretty silly if you ask me, most smart people can readily see through such bullshit pretty quickly. Someday the SIM crowd will get with the program. Eh…maybe not. They have to do a little growing up first. But you know being an adult is kind of nice.

Anyway, I’m enjoying my gig though the server issues including a couple weeks ago are annoying…though the new board set up is doing fine but will also need to expand its server space soon with all the accounts signing up. Then checking on the board and finding out it’s slowed down because a dozen threads have been started on the same thing…so then you got to clean them all up. But when it’s slow, except for the barrage of PMs complaining about it that somehow get through, there’s less trouble to deal with on some of the more…arduous and passionate topic threads.

Took some time off for Thanksgiving break. Since I have family from seven countries, it’s always an international get together. Those countries being Australia, Japan, N.Z., Russia, United States and of course Canada. The closer folks come from Berkeley and Simi Valley which though both on opposite ends of the cultural and political spectrum often seem like countries of their own.

Lovely meal at El Coyote restaurant which is usually crowded in West L.A. but where my family has permanent reservations. The Tostado Fresca was quite tasty as were the margaritas. Pretty good food at a not so bad price and Mariachis too.

My ride home….Metrolink commuter trains…

The ride back was nice. The conductor helped me a lot with my baggage since I have a weight limit on my bionic shoulder. Trip went quickly because we’re both writers so we talked trade. He does poetry…I do everything else. Then we team tagged to help a passenger from New Orleans perfect his marriage proposal to his girlfriend waiting for him. It’s always nice to multi-task on the train rides where I’ve done everything from two person CPR to help host a Thanksgiving party with granola bars and juice boxes when the train broke down in Upland for three hours. The highlight was the puppy smuggled aboard that broke loose running through the train car during the group sing along.

So if you have the opportunity to see the country by rail, don’t pass it up. It’s always an adventure…and the entertainment’s included in the hefty ticket price.

The Bitch…and other terms of endearment…

I heard second hand I got called a bitch again by one of our city’s department heads at a meeting and I have to say far from being offended, that served as quite a nice welcome back to investigations after a bit of time off. No, actually I think it was “f——- bitch”. It’s not “cunt” but it’ll do. Terms of endearment are put on a sliding scale of how they directly correlate with the progress of an investigation. So far my face hasn’t run into a pair of brass knuckles…that still makes me chuckle or it would if it wasn’t so pathetic. Like someone trying to make a fashion statement.

So that was quite nice. What wasn’t so nice was when said department head withdrew support of a forum an organization I work with had been laboring for some time to put on regarding a crucial community issue. Then said department head tried to talk the other guest panelists from participating which didn’t work.

The press guy asked me why said department head wasn’t there and I said, that he was best to answer that question as he was the smart one. Needless to say he will be participating next time. As it should be since he serves the public.

I thanked him for his reconsideration, told him the investigation’s going well so far and wished him a nice day. I can never be accused of having bad manners. If that makes me a bitch then that’s perfectly okay.

Community forum with over 200 people in attendance…and there were great refreshments.

It’s been busy on the work front…landed myself a couple good investigations. Good news, the one involving working over a year with an ambulance franchise unable to do business due to a franchise licensing kickback scheme provided for the company afforded an illegal monopoly. That situation has been picked up by the FBI for further investigation of violating a couple of federal statutes since Medicare monies are involved. But hey, when one of the EO of your primary vendor is married to the ED of the licensing commission, well that constitutes a conflict of interest right? To the men in the suits, take the ball and run with this one…pleeeease. I just don’t know if I want to be at City Hall if it gets raided though that’s not likely in this case at least. I wonder if it’s like SWAT and you hit the floor. Maybe it’s in some manual somewhere.

The best dressed FBI agents I’ve seen in suits so far along with their IRS counterparts gave a press conference inside a bunker a month ago announcing the plea deal taken by some not so brilliant elected official who set the record for the largest bribe ever accepted during an undercover sting operation….$2.3 million. Damn he sold himself pretty cheaply.

Cos, you don’t know the rules? You should always look your best in a mug shot.

His deal should have his former colleagues on the dais crapping right now because most likely considering his crimes it wasn’t an unconditional plea deal and right now, the disgraced public servant turned almost millionaire is probably singing to the feds like a caged canary.

One reason why I’m a huge opera fan.

However, none of this was why I was called a bitch the other day. But it might be why I get called a bitch tomorrow. The hard part is if some of these politicians representing the region’s current biggest laughing stock had taken the advice they solicited which was to distance themselves from the corruption, they’d probably not have to wonder whether or not to sing to the grand jury.

But that said, I love what I do and really missed it during my layoff. Great to be back.

Now onto kitties…

Kitty Aerobics is such an awesome thing! But I really love this picture:

Peyton Manning busts his ankle. Eh…wrap it up and you’e as good as new. but they’re doing great….since I love my Broncos from the great state of Colorado, here’s another photo

In short terms, Broncos beat the KC Chiefs 35, to 28 to keep their hopes alive for winning AFC West as it should be.

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Some tasty Mississippi Roast!!

Finally the new fire station is completed and dedicated!

They had a few problems…

Two cool guys getting their Medals of Valor last week for their involvement in the final shootout with former LAPD Officer Chris Dorner earlier thisyear. One of them is a prior winner for his bravery in rescuing the city’s mayor and the majority of the city council who were held hostage inside a conference room 15 years ago. The mayor and two council members and three officers were shot but all recovered. I was late to that meeting that morning and arrived there just when a council member was being taken out on a stretcher. The gunman is doing life at Pelican Bay and when I worked for a newspaper, I used to get mail from him and had to deal with the prison to get his subscription delivery fixed.

That’s cool…the latest scandal…not so cool. Is asking them to stay out of trouble for five years or so too much to ask? Another investigation looms…

Oh never mind…

Betty White’s always been my favorite since she blessed our little pup at a church service years ago. He did live to be 15 and Betty White is way cool.

You see using “fucking pussy” in a derogatory way is actually a form of gay bashing as well. In fact, that’s its most common use. It doesn’t surprise me having witnessed homophobia and use of homophobic slurs in the Chat though less than those against the cognitively disabled. Another reason among many not to be there because believe it or not, some of us aren’t into bullying nor gay bashing so these people can take their “fucking pussies” comment and bully apologist attitude and park their bigotry right in Chat where it belongs.

The rationalization of bullying in the game’s social outlet as that cartoon sent by likely one of those doing it (I’m guessing a ringleader rather than a follower) was disturbing but hardly surprising…given that nobody really cares to do anything about it. In that kind of environment, I’d feel entitled and justified to do it too, maybe so much I would delude myself into believing I was helping people avoid turning into some form of negative gay stereotype.

I mean when it came down to a young girl in tears over being harassed and hounded in Chat by older male players or having a teenage male player who was routinely harassed and hounded in Chat through the use of slurs against the disabled, say that he wished he could change his ID so he could play the game in socialize in peace, that just has an effect on any decent, grown up human being who’s not into that bullying type behavior.

Running a player off the site by targeting him in forum threads just because he did what other players did and didn’t get a “pass” for it. Running people out of Chat under the guise of how they wrote their articles, again to “help” them and then hounding them in the forum to “help” them because they were no longer able to be victimized in Chat. When they joked about killing and having a tree ready for this player…that really was the epitome of how pathetic and how ugly this type of behavior had become on a site that had once been fun to play and invest in financially too.

What’s sad is that there are actually people who believe this is all cool and funny and makes them big tough people. Most people don’t seem to like it and many just go underground.

By the time I was reading about players acting like wannabe thugs talking about bashing other players with Brass Knuckles or “F’n” them up” (liked by everyone including the admins), any doubts I ever had that the bullying would be effectively addressed were completely vindicated.

So when five or six grown players gang up on a teenager and use “retard” slurs, that’s just to help them? When they drive a young female player to tears so her parents have to get involved, that’s just “helping” her too? How does it “help” a player to threaten to bash their faces in with brass knuckles or joke about “cutting them”? Feel free to explain that kind of twisted logic from a bunch of people who seem just so full of themselves. No, why not invest your money in a good shrink instead to spoon feed to you how seriously messed up that type of mentality is to most people.

The truly sad part of it though admittedly fun part too is that these people don’t have a clue how many people they’ve made unhappy with their behavior. But that’s what narcissism and a need to validate your own importance in life through bullying or even fighting for a piece of imaginary universe will do to a person.

Oh and for the person who asked me for clarification on the circle jerk comment the people who ask each other post-climax, “was it good for you too” are the active participants in the bullying and trashing to make other players feel badly again to “help” them not be “fucking pussies” and the people asked “are you faking” are those who aren’t thrilled about what’s going on but pretend to go along with it to avoid conflict before spilling on it often to the targets. Bullying cliques are very fragile and those involved in the often turn on each other soon enough. You can always count on that.

Blame it on having watched Showtime’s new show, Masters of Sex just before. Lizzy Caplan’s a real find.

It’s interesting how it moved from the “we’re not bullying anyone stage” (denial) to the “Waaaahh…we’re being bullied (reversal) to “Yeah we admit we’re bullying but are just doing it to ‘help’ people” rationalization. As stated earlier that’s pretty much proof positive that it’s probably close to the Chat version of the Lord of the Flies going on though I had already heard that a lot of people are steering clear of Chat and the forum as well in anticipation of decreased oversight of both beginning next month due to admin changes.

Wish everyone good luck with that! But what a bunch of babies who needed to be put on time outs a long time ago.

Now that this is cleared up move away from all Chat circle jerk talk or “fucking pussies” and onto the other topics of this posting…

This football player fighting ALS is one of many people struggling against a disease that’s progressive and ultimately terminal including two very special people. One of them, a mentor of mine who’s battled it for over 10 years and is still going strong. The other, a dear friend who was recently diagnosed with a very aggressive form of familial ALS which means it passes along from one generation to the next through an autosomal gene that’s dominant.

Every year my mentor who’s still working hard at his business and his wife, now a state assemblywoman are involved in a fundraiser for an organization named Hearts for ALS. One of the high points for a lot of people trying to raise money for ALS research and care of patients and their families is when Charles Bibbs and his wife appear and put up his paintings in the silent auction. He’s one of my favorite artists ever. Always fun to catch up with him and his wife at an event or just out and about. I have a custom made painting done by him which I received when I won one of the community service awards at the annual banquet by the NAACP.

He brings positive energy through his art and the generosity and spirit of him and his wife, to an event that centers on an illness that causes more than its share of grief and despair to tens of thousands of people in the U.S. every year.

Charles Bibbs, Artist

500 Generations

Bibbs’ label from film, The Secret Lives of Bees.

Anyone should consider themselves lucky indeed to have one of his excellent paintings. So if you go to the Hearts for ALS, bid on them to raise money to fight against a terrible disease that’s taken too many lives already.

Destroying records…amid an FBI Investigation…Naughty Naughty

I got some emails on this situation where the neighboring city is trying to change an ordinance which will allow it to destroy public documents and records in only six months and some in 60 days instead of the current two years. Problem is this city’s mayor pro tem and most of its city council are under investigated by the FBI and State DOJ for various allegations of corruption resulting in a series of raids including on City Hall.

Months ago, at the birthday party held for a friend and current U.S. Congressman a group of us were approached by two council elects from that city and two for another on how to develop the skills to do financial audits and interpret and understand public records. Mind you, most political offices don’t come with training manuals outside of a legal and ethics course required by state law. This city’s political scene is a minefield and they were warned of which politicos serving with them to steer clear of and distance themselves from outside the meetings. It’s been known for a long time that there’s a somewhat incestuous relationship between certain developers and certain elected officials which is now being investigated by the feds.

Unfortunately they didn’t prove to be good “students”, they ran with the developers’ crowds and now they’ve got FBI agents showing up with search warrants for their homes and offices. What can you say? They were duly warned, now they have to deal with the aftermath of what could be unsound and unwise decision making on alliances and agreements among other situations.

The other two new politicos in the other city are doing much, much better putting their training to good use to promote financial accountability and honesty and integrity in government.

Anyway was asked by some folks to send them information on attempts made to change ordinances to destroy records earlier incidentally by the same employees that worked here who are now working there. In the world of municipal politics, there are really very few coincidences.

On the bright side, more grass roots political campaigns and more candidates reaching out for the type of training to better understand how to read and understand financial records and other public documents. Better understand how to document and report wrong doing so they don’t have to come out of closed sessions saying they’re worried about voting on something that’s illegal and/or unethical. With raids by plain clothed men and women wearing monogrammed jackets becoming more and more common in these parts, it’s not a bad thing. It’s time to encourage leadership that doesn’t become a part of that.

But later that day a big shout out to the FBI as AGAIN City Hall was raided by this agency in suits issuing subpoenas for a whole lot of records. You have to say this about the FBI, they do wear suits well.

The DA not wanting to be left out of the paper trail party also ordered the city NOT to destroy any records. Pass that resolution and face obstruction of justice charges. Oh I just got TINGLES when Mr. Z talks tough!

Am scheduled to be interviewed by a newspaper reporter on a piece on community

grassroots activism and engagement…should be a lot of fun! Normally I’d rather interview than be interviewed but it’s a much more interesting topic than cyber bullying in which I was interviews on by an online monthly magazine a few weeks ago.

Some Costa Mesa Politicos hanging out together before the storm…

Following the reemergence of the Costa Mesa politico scandal there which led to Orange County District Attorney investigators raiding an Upland law firm the other day, leaving with boxes of files and computer hard drives in hand. It seems like raids are the norm here. Spent time in the law library doing research watching feds including the FBI and IRS raid three bail bonds places across the street. Nothing to do but shrug and get back to research.

One last group photo (minus said investigator) before the firm is dissolved amid multiple investigations including a criminal probe

Anyway the law firm was double or triple billing clients mostly police officers or at least three of its attorneys including an active partner were suspected of doing that leading to an investigation by PORAC and likely the State Bar. But the criminal probe involves last year’s notorious caper where one of the law firm’s investigators, an ex-detective allegedly called in a DUI on a mayor pro tem of Costa Mesa that wasn’t allegedly a real DUI.

By the time the firm was raided, over half the attorneys had fled the firm. The investigator who was said to be an independent contractor in fact worked for the firm for months after the scandal in Costa Mesa broke, according to an attorney employed by the law firm who was trying a case for one of their clients in superior court.

The private investigator? Well he appeared on the KFI radio show last year talking about it. I was dining with one of my friends when he phoned him up saying OC DA’s office had just enforced a search warrant against him and were removing boxes of items from his house while he was calling everyone on his phone list about it I guess before they took the phone away. I get contacted occasionally asking for comment on this scandal. I don’t return them.

Of all my years covering the LE beat, the cop turned private investigator in the hot seat now was the one who puzzled me most more than the cops turned rapists, the one addicted to drugs who committed armed robberies, the one who molested his daughter and the chief who sat across the table from me sipping coffee as I told him he had two weeks to start to clean up his police department that saw 1 out of every 25 officers on the street getting arrested or lose it.

Two weeks later, I got the SOS in my email box and the rest as they say is history. I just don’t know if it’s worth writing about but if someone wants to publish it, fine put it on an already busy work schedule.

Eh…the detective, I’d hoped he’d clean himself up and get smart but clearly not after helping him get out of the penalty box. Will he and the other players in this scandal get charged? I doubt it as I think the politicos in OC mostly wanted to put the law firm out of commission at least for a while until it likely reorganizes under a small group of interconnected firms and get back in business. That’s usually how it works.

Officer Andy Tachias

While struggling to regain use of my shoulder, as part of a very slow and somewhat painful recovery, I’ve done much, much better than expected by the surgeon who finally released me from the care to annual appointments. I did promise to work hard if he got rid of this mustache and beard thing he was trying to get going and to drop by the initial surgeon who said my case was absolutely hopeless to show off what I can do. I am inspired a lot by a young man who suffered devastating injuries while onduty as a police officer in my city. About three days after I got home from the hospital after my surgery, I woke up to the neighborhood under lock down and the shocking news that two police officers had been shot just several blocks away. They’d been sitting in their cars in an intersection waiting for the light to turn green. Then a pickup truck driven by former LAPD Officer Chris Dorner pulled up and opened fire on them, killing Officer Michael Crain and badly wounding Tachias who had survived an onduty shooting just several years earlier while working at another police department.

Tachias was shot at least eight times and was pulled out of his bullet ridden vehicle by a cab driver who had pushed the button on his radio so he could call in the 11-99, officer down. The officers who responded initially were close friends of another police officer who had been killed two years earlier. I had texts when I woke up telling me that there was a fatal shooting and which officer was involved, one that I had seen develop and mature into a fine officer during a career lasting over 10 years. Like others who were given the identity of the officers, we were asked to keep it confidential in order to keep the families safe. We all did it without thinking because out of respect and because people were terrified with Dorner out there loose. He’d shot some LAPD officers just off the highway and then drove down a main thoroughfare until he ran into the two officers. To say most of the people in my city were absolutely devastated would be an understatement. No one rested at all until Dorner’s final standoff with law enforcement up in the Big Bear area where he killed a sheriff deputy and wounded another. A friend of mine was a commander for a police agency that responded on the scene of Dorner’s last stand and it ended soon after a media blackout. Horrific but I found myself understanding it. I remember walking on a freeway overpass with some friends and seeing over 25 cars from my city’s department with sirens blaring on the highway en masse. We all knew where they were they were going and what the end result might be.

Most of the city stood on sidewalks, parking lots, driveways and on land around parks, schools and businesses as the procession of over a thousand police officers did the funeral procession to the church to hold a funeral service for Crain. Tachias had multiple surgeries in hopes of someday returning on duty. Unfortunately, he suffered a lot of nerve injuries so he’s not likely to return to active duty but he’s working his rehab program hard and facing more surgeries for tendon relocation so he can better use his arms and hands. It didn’t take much time for his life to change forever nor his partner’s life to end. I know that feeling on a tiny scale…and the only thing you can really do is to keep at it, keep moving forward, working hard and not ever giving up.

Tachias has all the qualities he needs to do the best he can to rebuild his life in spades, to do as the adage says take lemons and turn them into lemonade. I think of him and what he’s gone through as I still continue my own arduous journey to regain an arm that I spent most of my life taking for granted until I almost lost it. I think in my most difficult moments if he can do it so can I.

He said recently at a local running race held in his honor that he plans to return to running by next year. So will I.

Life’s what you make it after all no matter what it throws your way, obstacles are to be overcome and to help you grow and there’s so much more to appreciate you, so much more to be gained by being a positive part of people’s lives than to be negative just to fit in with the crowd.

I can’t honestly say 2013 was the best or favorite year of my life and as for a man like Tachias he’d have his own answers to those same questions but it’s been one of the most challenging, one of the most pivotal, a chance to focus on what’s working and what’s not…the people who matter rather than those who don’t and in the end, I think it’ll turn out to be the most rewarding.

Don’t you just love Fox Entertainment News and cartoons?

Inner peace is truly bliss and entirely possible with morning coffee

It’s also a waste of time.

Go Peyton Go! Better luck next time!

Some say the scariest thing out there is an educated woman.

Cats and Yarn….

Cats and yarn…always messy….

Go Diane! I’d hire her! And her shoes are always great!

Backyard this morning…most inexpensive walk-through so far. Then back to work after the interview, helping some students with journalism assignments due tomorrow, trying to find out from the WGA if an in progress series treatment has to be registered and if so how… then rewrites of a novel which hopefully will be published by the end of the decade… 😛

Then the research due tomorrow….which is mostly done. By then ready for dinner!

This was a response from someone who signed themselves only as “Your BFF of Course” as an intelligence counter response to the bullying fest on Chat. Wow!!! Artwork is my favorite form of commentary! Made me chuckle…I can appreciate a good cartoon and a cute animal. It’s shown up in Chat with six referral visits from the game Chat just in the past hour or so, wait now nine…so less time spent “helping” other players including teenagers by packing up and bullying them or better yet joking about killing them. Whatever it takes to keep them from turning into “fucking pussies”.

I mean aren’t these folks supposed to be talking about fake horses and playing nice with each other? That actually would be very nice…

Where did it hail from? ISP is owned by Insight Communications Company in Louisville, Kentucky…address withheld. It’s a subsid of Time-Warner since June 2013 when T/W purchased as part of a group of mergers during its expansion. This IP branch currently serves the states of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. Don’t know anybody there.

So a nice howdy and nice to hear from you to my readers in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio! Good to see you! Also to visitors from seven different states, Canada, Brazil, England, Bulgaria, Russia and Switzerland.

Eh….the bird’s cute. I’ll give it an A, the rationalization…maybe a C-…. very weak and just a load of immature posturing using the words “fucking” and “pussies”…oh my goodness…LOL. We’re bringing body parts into this rationalization!

Beats brass knuckles and knives…..get bumped aside for female “bits” and the act of sexual intercourse. Dealing with a very high level of intelligence here I can see, coming from the person who once said to someone, “Your [sic] an idiot”. 😀

Fucking Pussies? My my…someone’s got their panties in a knot and that can be painful. 😉 Hope it’s not more physically painful than an exploding head or two. But it’s so like this crowd of bullies to harass and bully people and then claim it’s to “help” them, yes so they can turn their self-righteousness into righteousness. You don’t need to be bullied to be tough and bullying others doesn’t make you tough. It’s not done to “help” anyone, it’s done to keep them down so that others feel better about themselves, that’s it and that’s why it’s done on the SIM game’s social outlets. That’s just common sense that oddly enough the bullies themselves don’t seem to grasp….but they’ll never get it. They’re too busy having too much fun at others’ expenses and getting boners over it, just before a nice group circle jerk and the release of shared verbal ejaculation. See I can talk naughty too! And I imagine after they chase someone out of chat after said climax, they turn around and say to one another, “was it good for you too?” or “are you faking?”

Sermon over. Now that I’ve been duly entertained…back to work. What a bunch of pathetic lightweights if this is an example of their work product!

See ya in the funny papers….won’t be seeing you in that cess pool that you and your buds turned Chat and the forum into anymore… 🙂 Thank goodness for that! The fact that you’re rationalizing bullying means you’ve done it already today and rationalizing it rather than denying it just makes it clear it’s probably out of control and why not? Who’s going to stop it? Not the admins for sure. I feel badly for those who just sit and let it happen right in front of them or those who no longer feel “allowed” to socialize on a site they might pay money to utilize but it’s not my problem, blessed be.

YES!!!!!

Who didn’t celebrate when the Patriots beat the Saints who were fools enough to start celebrating a win they hadn’t earned yet. Doing the strutting and the preening and then oops…oh well. There’s something just very satisfying about being reminded of the old adage, the game aint ova until it’s ova.

Suckas!

That made up for the Canucks losing to the Habs and looking like they needed some shock paddles to revive them most of the game.

Anyway…had to wake up early and merge duplicate topic threads and break up some bratty kids fighting on a couple threads…about some fandom over another. Taping’s in full force for sweeps which start next month which some reason leads to assorted ‘shipping wars to moderate but so far not too volatile. No one’s discussing or threatening to harm people in graphic detail or joking about killing or lynching people and no, this moderator isn’t going to someone who’d ever agree, “like” or condone that type of trash talk. There’s sites that will do all that unfortunately but the forums won’t be part of that.

Hottest film of the Autumn so far….is…

Gravity

Grossing $123 million which means the movie box office drought is OVER!

Sandra Bullock space walking in what can only be described as some of the best special effects ever.

Dug up this small gem from the Game Chat where there’s some fall out from some folks getting their wrists slapped over the “Simple Jack” orgasms that took place in the game. Reading it now it’s just such a relief not to have to deal with such a pack of assholes anymore. Any qualms I had with leaving were gone when I realized that not only do the admins not care about the incessant bullying and trashing, they’re completely down with it. I’m a person of class and character and watching that crap play out among a select few and a bunch of cowardly folks of low character and class who don’t even have the fortitude and self-respect to do anything but watch and participate. The FB conversations that were sent to me to peruse, thanks! I’m just not the type of person who thinks that’s cool or even okay. They were after all, a necessary eye opener and proof positive of what I was suspecting was going on in my final days in that game. Because I really did nothing to deserve the way I was treated and while I don’t regret some parts of it, I’m glad it’s behind me. I am happiest when I surround myself with good natured, gutsy, grownups who are the type who don’t go along to get along with the bullying and trash talks and yes, threatening to harm people through FB including those you don’t like. Maybe some people are like that and find each other to bond in this way but most of us just aren’t like that.

Well, not my crowd at all and I’m so glad especially as time goes past that I didn’t sell out my ethics and morals to continue to sit in the cesspool of Chat. I took my stand, a bunch of bullies cried foul and the admins folded, simply because when it comes to unruly friends and dignified customers, they choose the former.

I wish them much luck with trying to integrate business success with that kind of attitude. I’m a good hearted person in general so I wish the business side of it the best of luck, which is good because I know they’ll need it.

Hail Marzy indeed…you have to chuckle at the grade school mentality of some of these folks who a good portion of their lives center on trying to bring others down into the gutter with them where they choose to reside.

Ran into another one of their “victims” who left the game not long after I did. And another they thought just “disappeared” but simply got fed up with not being able to socialize in the game without being layered in absolute shit all the time that not even a much needed colonic could fix.

Not to mention to what all that shit getting on you does to your dry cleaning bills!

This chat screen shot came up because after a couple dust ups on the forum that led to a couple time outs, I’d told the other moderators it wasn’t that bad. It’s just people getting over zealous over two sides in an argument that strayed into the personal side which sometimes happens. Not that hard to deal with as a moderator especially if you’re not really “friends” with any involved parties. There’s nothing malicious or malignant about it like you see when faced with a pack of bullies packing up and picking on people especially minors or those suffering medical conditions. Thank goodness it’s nothing like that!

It’s hard in a sense to give out suspensions when you know the offenses are still much less serious than what people got away with carte blanche in the game if they were tight with the “right” people. Then again, there’s nobody threatening to beat someone up with brass knuckles or cut them over a silly game while the admins and others cheer them on in a FB conversation. So yeah things could be a lot worse than a little dust up here and there. Anyone does that in a forum and Chat I monitor, they’re gone, period. I’m certainly not going to condone it and then make it clear that I’m down with it later with the folks that are causing the problems.

And it’s not “Hail Marzy”, it’s “Proud Marzy”. It’s always good when you jettison what’s bad and put it behind you. It’s a waste of human life to spend it hating on others like that to try to feel better about yourself, wishing them harmed or dead, joking about lynching and killing people. The sad thing is that most of these folks don’t appreciate life enough to know it.

Why are we still celebrating this man’s life?

On the brighter side, Happy Thankgiving Canucks! Since over a third of my family is proudly Canadian, it’s also really nice not the “cute” and oh so “clever” snide remarks against them. Yeah some of them were funny (a couple hilarious) the first time you used those remarks but there’s something to be said that a joke loses its humor the more time you use it. Then considering the overall spirit of Chat was just a bunch of insecure bullies making fun of other people any way they could think to do so to feel better about themselves. That puts some of the jokes in their proper context.

Thanks Lori, have a great time in London!

Yeah there are definitely days like these….

Yummy yummy yummy

Got more to write…just need time to do it….with two novels in rewrites and a series treatment and pilot breakdown to finish by the time of the year…it’s been busy. I mean it’s not every day some producers come forward and want to do a dramatic series based on where you used to work! 😮

Catching Fire Coming Soon…

This TV promo spot just got released and highlights some of the parts of the second film in the Hunger Games trilogy as it hits theaters in November. Scenes of her and Peete on their victory tour, scenes of Katniss with Gale, Prim, Peete and her saying goodbye to Cinna which will be especially sad because things don’t end well for her stylist.

This man did something incredibly awesome to fight cyber bullying by athletes on his team. What was it?
Stay tuned or if you can’t wait Google. This applies to SIM bullies too because who knows maybe you’ll learn something.

From Death Row Dogs (NYC) via FB and Twitter

Sasha is looking for a home out of Brooklyn Animal Control. My name is SASHA. My Animal ID # is A0979179.
I am a female br brindle and white pit bull mix. The shelter thinks I am about 3 YEARS old

I came in the shelter as a STRAY on 09/16/2013 from NY 11208, owner surrender reason stated was STRAY.

Getting back more involved with Animal Rescue (as much as I can) has been rewarding as I’d always done it in the past. Mostly with cats lately rather than dogs. Putting my investigative journalism skills to use tracking dogs which are needles in multiple large haystacks has really come in handy. But it made me remember a nasty conversation in Chat part of which is captured here involving a really very nice player named Jennifer. She’d committed the gross sin of posting a thread in the forum about finding an abandoned pit ball dog and some of the usual haters went to town with it and her making personalized attacks because they had nothing better to do during that moment in time.

Anyway, this isn’t really what’s important. It’s not the nastiest conversation that took place at her expense even after they chased her from Chat in truly disgusting fashion. It’s probably not as nasty as the plentiful FB conversations that more than likely took place also at her expense. Maybe she was on the Brass Knuckles list too. Some of us chatted with her, well PMed her or braved her thread on the often treacherous forum to get more information and to assist her with trying to find if not a home for the abandoned dog, a rescue organization. People did step up to the plate including a couple not so nice to her in Chat which was reassuring to see and the dog found a home with a rescue. After conversing with Jennifer it was pretty clear she knew the breed and knew what she was doing and what precautions to take which these haters would have known if their interest in the topic hadn’t been superseded by their interest in bashing her and making personalized attacks as they routinely did in Chat when not sniping at her in the forum simply because they couldn’t get at her in Chat.

I don’t know if the game sanctioned or “liked” the ill treatment of her as it clearly did in a FB conversation involving Kay Johnson but one would hope not.

But back at work trying to get more involved in Animal Rescue, I see more of what people do every day, a little bit or a lot to help abandoned dogs and cats and other critters too find new homes. More power to those who do this kind of work! What Jennifer did proved once again through her compassion for a stray dog that the bullied on the game are so much better than those who bully them with impunity. It just is what it is.

You can look at that particular episode on the chat/forum of the game in two ways. One woman got to make the difference in whether an abandoned dog lived or died and another group had another opportunity to be nasty towards her about it well, just because. One episode in nastiness which was as meaningless to them as the rest of the times because there’s just been so many of them. To someone who didn’t treat them the same way, who was the first to offer comforting words or words to support to those in the forum who shared painful stuff, yes even those who had bullied her the worst.

But with the group who bullied and trashed her, their main goal each day is simply to prove themselves to be bigger assholes than the day before. Hey, sometimes they did just that.

Those who bullied her incessantly and trashed her in Chat and the forum, just showed they have a long way to know about things like class, grace and maturity. They’re too busy confusing nasty with tough, rude with cool and righteousness with self righteousness to really learn anything at all.

Of the two opposites, which one would you rather be? For most of us folks, the answer’s quite simple and obvious as well.

While writing that blurb, I found the following message from a friend on FB and thought it fit perfectly.

The sad thing is that the “difficult people” talk and revel in their coolness when most of those around them just look at them and shake their heads in pity, for they really know not what they speak.

Enough on the bullshit of bullies in Chat and forums (not you John Lennon) and onto the more important things in life. Doing another round of edits on the novel that might turn into three actually or get tossed in a burning pyre, not sure what yet.

The forum hasn’t exploded yet either from the influx of heavy traffic or any dust ups. It’s nice to moderate a forum where people can behave civilly, are thankfully drama free and are mature adults for the most part.

The dust ups on Twitter? I don’t know how to comment on that yet, just to say it’s okay to block folks who are nasty drama queens. Hey, I tossed eight people out of a Chat I was moderating once who were doing the nasty and I have to say it’s very therapeutic, cyber space’s version of a colonic. 🙂

Was it really almost six years ago since the walkout?

WGA West Strike and Walkout 2007-08

The strike ended in March 2008 after nearly four months of rallies and marches and occasionally contract negotiations. Picketing at CBS Television City, I remember a huge turnout including members of the SAG and Teamsters who showed up in support.

Thought this was pretty cute!

Finally the fifth season of The Good Wife is set to premiere this Sunday!

But Alicia doesn’t wind up with either of these men, she winds up with Cary Argos to join him in his new breakaway firm! Will the governor’s election results be rife with corruption? This is Chicago right? And will Dianne get the judgeship she’s been craving for years?

Will Kalinda still be “flexible” or AC/DC?

More cat photos…it’s been that kind of week!

Broncos have been doing awesome but the fans of the Dodgers and Giants have to stop hurting (and killing) each other! It’s just a baseball game!

Broncos getting ready to rumble in what looks like a great season so far

I’m almost waiting for the other shoe to fall….

For the Love of Black Cats (FB) photo of the day!

Next big road trip…well not really but any time spent on the So. Cal freeways feels like a marathon.

First stop…

Then the Grove…for lunch with the ‘rents and friends!

Princess Rooney

Fly Away Girl…

1984 BC Distaff Winner

You can’t talk about this champion filly without talking about one of the members of her class.

Landaluce

In 1982, I fell in love with a horse. A bold brassy filly by the name of Landaluce who was a daughter of Seattle Slew from his first crop and who quickly proved to be something real special when she won five races by a combination of 46 1/2 lengths.

Her most impressive looking victory I got to witness which was her 21 length runaway in the Hollywood Lassie. She didn’t exactly run she floated down the stretch in a gallop.

She vanquished every foe put in front of her with pluck and resounding ease until she ran into the faceless one she couldn’t beat.

Colitis – X.

It was a foe her sire knew quite well and narrowly defeated before returning to win again on the racetrack. Landaluce never had that chance. One of the most brilliant promising fillies of her generation died with her head in the arms of the man who conditioned her barely two months after her final victory.

“You search and you look, and then all of a sudden, it comes, that star, and you know you have been blessed with something special.”

–Trainer D. Wayne Lukas

“Normally, I am not a superstitious man, but I walk around these days hoping nothing happens to her. When I see Wayne Lukas walking towards me, my instinct is to turn away. I am afraid he is going to tell me something has gone wrong. I never want to hear that she has turned a hair.”

–Jockey Laffit Pincay, Jr.

Landaluce, doing what she did best before winning the Hollywood Lassie by 21

After the tragic death of Landaluce, more attention fell to another prominent filly in the class of 1980 who was Princess Rooney. This elegant grey daughter of Verbatim won all six of her starts as a two year old but lost out in the Eclipse balloting to Landaluce who won the juvenile filly divisional title in the final voting tally.

Tragedy offered the chance to step it up and so she did with aplomb in a world unaware of much besides the quirk of fate.

No matter, Princess Rooney proved to be gallant in her own right. At three, she won two major stakes including the Kentucky Oaks. The following year at 4, she came back at the top of her game winning four stakes including the Vanity Handicap and yes, the BC Distaff at the inaugural rendition at Hollywood Park.

Betting on her was easy and putting her together with Life’s Magic, a top younger filly just as much. Princess Rooney turned the first Distaff into a runaway by seven lengths over the younger filly who would return the following year to win a Distaff of her own.

No one had to threaten to bash his head in with brass knuckles, cut him or smash him in the pavement online, in Chat or on FB.

But has anyone really learned anything? Not in some corners of the internet for sure. And since cyber bullies always gloat and “celebrate” in what the lexicon calls “cyber bashes” , they likely did in this case except for the main players who whined when someone actually held them responsible for their abhorrent and cowardly behavior.

Nothing tough after all about beating up (or threatening to do that) online especially in a group of like minded folks.

Spam bots and spam accounts were more prolific this week for some reason but they tend to come in waves, including several who spammed in Japanese and one in Russian. They most likely originate in Eastern Europe which is the epicenter of most computer and internet mayhem and then used computers in Southern and South East Asia due to the proliferation of computers using pirated or unregistered software including Windows (XP is particularly common) to serve as the actual ISP source.

Question of the day: I’m taking off my shirt for a scene tomorrow. Should I eat this that or the other the night before?

The town of Northampton in Great Britain is terrified of this clown.

He just started showing up knocking on people’s doors at night and looking a lot from Stephen King’s infamous clown, Pennywise in his epic tale, It.

Pennywise, foolish to those who approach him.

“It didn’t happen…CALOSHA is wrong…”

Although a group of us got the letter from CALOSHA months ago, it finally hit the press that the agency had been investigating the way the city handled a personnel investigation involving an employee who allegedly pulled a knife and threatened two other employees inside City Hall. You see it might feel cute and make you feel cool about threatening or chatting about “cutting people” online but in real life it’s really anything but as most rational people know. This was an employee who’d shown instability in the workplace calling female members of the public “bitches”, making racist jokes to a Black female employee and had boasted that he had semi-automatic weapons at his house. Rumor got out that the incident had happened and initially the two involved employees who both worked for elected officials denied it but then privately, explained that it did but they didn’t want to report it lest they get fired.

Even though CALOSHA came back with a finding against the city, the city manager and others had to find a way to spin it. One employee who had a knife pulled on him was later fired during the mayoral campaign of the elected official who used his services. It’s interesting and a bit appalling that the city’s attitude is so blase about an act of workplace violence considering what happened about 15 years ago. That day I was supposed to speak at a workshop on homeless issues but was running late. I got there to find the area cordoned off and city officials being hauled off on stretchers.

A recently fired employee had trapped the mayor and most of the city council inside a conference room, barricading it. The police sent a makeshift rescue team of mostly higher ranking officers, Internal Affairs personnel and the public relations officer and shots were exchanged. The mayor and two city council members were shot and two officers as well.

The shooter survived but was injured and is now doing multiple life sentences from Pelican Bay. When I worked with a newspaper, for some reason I got letters once in a while from him.

But at any rate, CALOSHA mandated that the city do more training on workplace environment and the point of the investigation was to establish a paper trail just in case what happened on Oct. 6, 1998 is never again repeated.

My youngest brother got “landed” in Australia finally, meaning he’s a permanent resident now. So he can continue to post pictures of scenic beach porn. “Landed” is more a Canadian term but it fits here as well. 🙂 It’s a much used term in my family since so few of us live in America.

Desmond Tutu, great man, one of those I always wanted to meet.

This one’s pretty cool…

SOS mentality is big in these parts, the portions of the country which once were owned by Mexico once they took them from the Spaniards. The biggest hoot is when a certain candidate for city clerk from a certain now bankrupt city was caught at a demo on his cell phone while hanging with a group of skinheads waving Confederate and Nazi Flags. You both lost your wars, get over it. And that’s both my German and (deep) Southern ancestry speaking.

Anyway, when the photo of him went viral he didn’t win the election.

But yeah, it’s not like the Europeans were here first.

Cute puppies Alert

This is one I stuck on the frig. It’s just been one of those kinds of years. If it weren’t for the support of a great network of friends after the shoulder surgery, it’d been more difficult. Jettisoned some clearly toxic folks out of my sphere and was blessed enough to have some kind folks send me the FB conversation from Hell to prove to me how right I was about the toxic mess that thoroughly ruined an otherwise fun game for me. Do I need to be reminded how certain of those “kind” folks joked and laughed about how I chose to handle my own brother’s death and post about it? Partied in Chat after I was leaving?

I’m glad not to see any more lynching…excuse me Christmas tree jokes and that whole Simple Jack circle jerk fest. So this was definitely the year to embrace and be thankful for the good and jettison the poisonous element which I guess will have to continue to fester and lash out without some of us. Though it’s kind of fun meeting up with other exiled game players in other more welcoming sites and talking about that mess we just left and whether it’ll ever get cleaned up.

The consensus of course, no it won’t. With oversight of the game likely to decrease markedly in November, it’ll just continue to move closer towards becoming Lord of the Flies at least in its social outlets.

I had to stop reading online articles on the limited studies done on the long-term prognosis on shoulder replacements on 3 and 4 part proximal humerus fractures b/c the news isn’t great. Not to mention I’ve got a 10 part humerus fracture. I guess my injury and the surgery done to literally reattach my arm back on my body’s not exactly typical nor has been my recovery. What can I say? I don’t back down from the challenges that life throws you that truly matter. What’s the point of doing that?

Though sometimes it helps to have a reminder.

Twitter’s an interesting thing and I was catching up on tweets this morning including an apparent dust up tweeted by an actor last night. He made a comment about Actor B which was most likely an in joke between them at work and since there’s the usual Fan Wars it kind of blew up.

Onto Sports….

Ready for this season?

Even though they didn’t do as hot as hoped last season, hopefully a better year for the Canucks. My younger sister is hot on them and goes to some of their home games in VC.

Broncos now 2 in 2, beating the Giants, no slamming the Giants.

Super Bowl Bound?

Too early to tell but the Manning Bowl was a blowout.

Until The Good Wife comes on, I’ve been catching General Hospital on DVR after some peeps told me some good material is coming up. And so it did as the Jerome brother and sister are ready to launch the first shot in PC’s latest mobster war. Not that the show knows anything about real mobsters but it’s still a hoot to watch. Now if at least they could do mobster weddings right.

The foe? The perennial mobster, Sonny Corinthos who’s once again fallen into darkness and despair after the murder of his latest love of his life, Connie Falconari.

Ava and Julian Jerome partners in crime

Ava has been running around town like a loose cannon even showing up to gaslight Sonny after Connie’s death while Julian or Derek as he’s slumming now just sent the guy flowers. Can’t blame him he’s been distracted donating bone marrow as the match for a grandson he never knew he had, and picked up some new “family” along the way. A daughter he never knew from a one night stand years ago and a woman far removed from the teenager he remembered. In fact, he knows who she is but not vice versa. The show spent several weeks softening his hard edges and quite successfully so.

But both siblings had their eyes on the prize in the latest mafia war when brother iced an associate who had just ratted out his real name (as he’d “died” 25 years ago in a shootout). So brother shot him dead in cold blood and sister sashayed up to kick in first to show how much she didn’t like him and then into the drink. Poor Vince, having to choose between death by bullet and death by fast food fryer.

Except for the fact that Ava kicks like a girl in her four inch stilettos, as brother and sister sat looking at their handiwork, you knew it wasn’t business as usual in PC.

Maura West (Ava) rocks by the way as she’s a well known activist for people with autism and parents of kids with autism and involvement with Autism Speaks. 🙂

The crew here is planning to head to the BC at Santa Anita this year. I still remember the first one that was held at Hollywood Park in 1984 which was a lot of fun. . An epic day of races including Wild Again in the Classic and Princess Rooney dominating in the Distaff.

But my favorite? Royal Heroine in the Turf Mile, which she won very convincingly after closing on the stretch. If ever a horse was named perfectly it was her, as she combined some classy European style breeding with the tools she needed to be successful on the racetrack. She won races in Europe before traveling to North America where she proved a force to be reckoned with there.

Royal Heroine wasn’t just swift and strong but she was gritty too. My oldest sister was there during the heartbreaking rendition of the Santa Ana Handicap which took the lives of two runners and nearly cost Royal Heroine her career. Her jockey Fernando Toro was hospitalized but the mare suffered only minor scratches and severe body soreness in a situation that could have been far worse.

But she rebounded after three months winning four great races then coming second behind the venerable John Henry in the Arlington Million. She looked tough for this one but some had their doubters in a field that included nine male horses. I put my money on her and she was impressive enough to set both an American and track record the mile distance on the turf. The sport also rewarded the dark bay/brown mare who rebounded from tragedy to win huge with the Eclipse title of champion turf female of the year.

Another type of Running Champion

Jacquline Nyetipei of Kenya assists a dehydrated runner which cost her the race but there’s things more important than winning.

I got a PM asking me how I felt about getting trash talked by the same old folks on the game and I just said, eh whatever. I’m sure they are unhappy that not everyone thinks they’re so awesome and like clever for discussing physically harming another player. A player who’d later be the subject along with another player of players joking about lynching and killing them both in some “double homicide”. That screenshot has served as a valuable tool in how NOT to run a Chat so I guess that incident’s served some useful purpose because no one on the game learned from it. It sure attracted a lot of attention from people who’ve seen it and later learned that the parties involved received no timeouts. Being able to provide examples of Chat moderation when it works and when it doesn’t does seem to provide a useful and positive purpose even when there’s nothing positive about that screen shot…except that only four out of 16 players in Chat participated in the banter.

The admins most especially. If you truly have a player causing so many problems, you deal with it and if necessary ban them, end of story. Banning’s not fun but it’s not supposed to be! You don’t sit around and “like” people discussing harming them. Not on FB at least in front of an audience including one or in this case, more who thought it was as one of those players might put it, “F”ed up. That’ll be the one most important lesson I walk away from them is that I thought for a long time the admins cared about bullying and trashing on their site, I hadn’t realized that not only didn’t they care, one of them participated in it! The truth is, that doesn’t bode well for any business-focused Web site as I think will become clear further the road, but you can always wish folks the best of luck. Kind of sad though. Yet it’s nice to at least learn from that enough to be a good moderator and who knows maybe an admin some day and not do things that way.

It was very disappointing but it helped me a lot to figure out that I really just got caught in a pit of vipers and it just took me a few years to figure it out. I have to say though I had a lot of fun with the many other folks who don’t behave that way so it wasn’t a total waste of time.

So no being trashed by those folks doesn’t really make me upset. Its like getting upset at a shark for being a carnivore. It’s just who they are and how they represent. Sad, to be hardwired with such bitterness and venom, but it is what it is and it’s not a whole lot of fun to watch.

They’re like…

When there’s no one there to bully or trash talk they bring each other done and if only some of the few that defend them knew what they were saying about them when they weren’t around…well you know the saying about those who trash talk. If you play around with them when they’re doing it to someone else, figure that once you leave the room or your back is turned then yep, you’re next. It wasn’t pleasant to watch. Being them must be even less pleasant.

Now if there were some garlic popcorn…but no….I don’t even feel like going there. It’s just so good to be away from an environment where people are too into talking about beating people up, cutting people up and generally bashing on folks who aren’t nearly as perfect as they think they are.

God, it must be so difficult to have to put up with imperfect people, you know those who use words too many times, or don’t like jokes about lynching…I mean Christmas trees and such. What a burden for these poor folks. No wonder they have to joke about killing lesser people and beating up people and insisting over and over that they really mean it.

Eh, after reading what happened to one player last week by some real perfect folks and who knows maybe they held a FB hate fest first, I’m really, really glad not to have to sit and watch it anymore. Maybe it’s time for some popcorn.

But I’m sure after they ran over someone they discussed it on FB first. I was going to watch boxing but some dude named Maurice is tweeting about it (and he’s awesome with baseball too) so I’m watching Liam Neeson in one of the Taken moves (1 or 2 or straight to cable) instead. With leftover popcorn and wine. While reading blow by blow (hah!) tweets by Maurice and some tweeter named Kaore from L.A. explaining why he’s not watching boxing.

I try to live by the motto below but admittedly I don’t always succeed at it. But after watching four years of so called “cool” people spend a lot of their time putting other people down to feel better about themselves…I think most of the people watching would feel more motivated to try a little harder.

Spent the day having the carpet ripped out of a bedroom for some new flooring! Supervised vendors cutting down about $7,000 worth of trees that we approved last meeting.

Entered the next round of horses with none injured this week. Dealing with forum traffic and combining threads (and oops, did I accidentally delete a couple….shhh). I did find the accidentally deleted thread and combined five threads started on “Brick vs Niz” which I’m not sure I even know what that means.

So they all managed to get consolidated into threads, the pro and con camps for both “‘shipping” and all is peaceful. People are generally just passionate about their opinions on Brick, Niz, Quiz, or Patrina.

Okay whatever. Put the nerf sticks down. Or go tweet Shark Boy about it and maybe ask him if Stealth Couple’s ever going on a date.

Though it’s a bit harder to turn a forum into a cess pool than a Chat. Ooops, just picked up a spam bot poster! Fun….just got to ban and delete. 🙂

I did my first column. Drew Friday….yay that was fun!

Peanut butter fudge, this is so yummy! No I didn’t make it, a friend did use this recipe. Fudge and I…not in this lifetime.

More Yummy food…..

This is so true….

Afghan food porn, lamb and rice sent by a cousin from an airbase in Afghanistan.

She’s very talented with her crafts and sells them in exhibitions all over So. Cal. She’s also into graphic arts as well. Hey, I got a D in needle craft in high school so more power to anyone who can do it.

Then I guess it’s off to the war veteran’s memorial…

And Preachers of L.A. has been tweeting me as it gets ready to debut in Oxygen. I might check it out to see what Pastor Ron (Gibson) says.

I met him in late 1998 when the city came to near riots over the controversial police shooting of a Black woman passed out inside her car. I thought him brash and impulsive but a brilliant orator and someone that many people, some pushed beyond rage could relate to. He had his moments splashing the state attorney general when he put down his glass unhappy with something he’d said but he was calm in crises too and goodness knows there were plenty of those taking place.